Fifty years ago today, 35 young people held Seattle’s first sit-in of the civil rights movement.

HistoryLink.org has the details:

On July 1, 1963, 35 young people stage the first sit-in of the civil rights movement in Seattle in the offices of Mayor Gordon S. Clinton. They are protesting the composition of a 12-member human rights commission proposed by Clinton. They occupy the mayor’s offices for 24 hours before leaving. There are no incidents and no arrests.

Mayor Clinton had asked the city council to establish a human rights commission that would write an open housing ordinance. Racial discrimination in housing in Seattle was a major source of discontent among African Americans. Clinton’s nominees for the commission included only two African Americans.

For the rest of the story, visit HistoryLink.org’s website.

The call for names for a new park at 19th and Madison created a flurry of creativity. Now the community group working to make the park a reality is trying to winnow the list of candidates down to a Top 3. Here are the 15 suggested names for the greenspace that made the cut.

You can weigh in on your top 3 here.

1. Acute Triangle Park: For geometric reasons, a play on words for “A Cute Triangle.”
2. Big Leaf Park: Honoring the preservation of the outstanding maple tree on the property.
3. Cayton Corner Park: Susie Revels was the daughter of Hiram Revels, the first black person elected to the U.S. Senate. She moved to Seattle and in 1896 married Horace Cayton, editor of the Republican Weekly. Together they published the newspaper and had the 2nd highest circulation in Seattle while appealing to both black and white readers. Both graduated from college and promoted education. They were active in the African American community and local politics.
4. Chas Bo Park: Chas Bo’s Milk Palace and Produce Emporium, a milk and vegetable stand was located on this corner from 1977 until 1980.
5. Fratelli’s Cows Park: Fratelli’s Ice Cream headquarters and distribution center were directly north of the park. It’s noted for the cow mural hand painted by one of the owners, which represented cows in different artistic styles that served as a landmark for about twenty years. Fratelli means brother in Italian.
6. Gdynia Park: Seattle’s Polish sister city. The Polish Cultural Center has been in the neighborhood since 1920.
7. Helen Keller Park: Born in Alabama, she lost her sight, speech and hearing at 19 months old. Through the help of Ann Sullivan she transformed from a disruptive child to a highly educated and respected individual. She gave lectures in Seattle in 1914, 1921, 1938 and visited the city briefly while returning from her world tour in 1948.
8. Longlight Park: The traffic light at this corner is just about the longest in Seattle, or at least it was in the ’90s. People used to get out of their cars (north & southbound) to press the “walk” request button to get it to change faster.
9. MadCap Park: Madison Capitol Hill combined.
10. Manuel Lopes Park: Historians consider him to be the first African American in Seattle. Of Portuguese-African descent he worked on whaling ships. In Seattle, he worked as a cook for Dexter Horton, a well-known banker, and was listed in his household in 1860. He also worked as a barber.
11. Mini Grand Central Park: A tiny park with big ideas. Also refers to a busy place.
12. Nexus Park: It’s at the nexus of several neighborhoods and changing history.
13. Octavia Butler: Californian African American science fiction writer, who earned the Nebula Award, Hugo Award and MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. She earned these awards while living in California, she moved to Lake Forest Park in October 1999 and died there five years later in February 2006. She was elected to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010.
14. Rising Sun Park: The Rising Sun Fruit, Vegetable and Milk stand stood on this corner from 1981 until 2004. The corner is on the east side of Second or Renton Hill so gets the sunrises.
15. William Renton Park: Captain Renton owned the property in the 1880’s and earned a living through his lumber, coal and shipping operations in the area. He was blind at the time of his death. He employed Native Americans and African Americans at his mill. In 1860, he employed 3 African Americans at a time when only 56 lived in the territory. On early maps of Seattle, this area was known as Renton or Renton Hill.
    

    Artist concept of the future park via the 19th and Madison Facebook group

The Livable Streets Candidate Forum

When: July 1st, 7:00-8:30 PM

Where: Madison Valley at the MLK Family, Arts, Mentoring, and Enrichment Community Center, 3201 E Republican Seattle, WA 98112

Cost/RSVP: Free. RSVP requested. Register online at: http://2013sngmayoral.eventbrite.com/#

Transportation: The community center is served by nearby bus routes 8 and 11 and is on the Lake Washington Loop bike route. A by-donation bike valet will be available. There is no off-street car parking.

Anticipated attendance: Mike McGinn, Peter Steinbrueck, Bruce Harrell, Ed Murray, Charlie Staadecker, Kate Martin, Joey Gray, and Mary Martin

is hosted by Seattle NeighborhoodGreenways and the Park Shore Retirement Community with support from the Seattle Parks Foundation, Commute Seattle, Sustainable Seattle, Senior Services, Seattle Subway, Feet First, the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, Cascade Bicycle Club, 12th Ave Stewards, Seattle Bike Blog, Futurewise, Capitol Hill EcoDistrict, the Madison Park Community Council, West Seattle Bike Connections, and Bike Works.

When Kevin Spitzer started 21st and Union’s Central Cinema in 2005, there wasn’t a lot to do in the Central District.

“If we wanted to go out, we had to go somewhere else,” he said. “Our mission of opening a theater over here, besides the fact that we live down the street, is all about making more fun happen in the CD.”

With its dinner-and-a-movie set up and cult-film revival programming, Central Cinema’s mission is to be a part of the community, to deliver an experience beyond just a projector screen and felt seats, Spitzer said.

With the Landmark-owned Egyptian Theatre closing its doors Thursday night after the 9:40 PM screening — rumors of a last minute deal for a renewed lease are just rumors, building landlord Seattle Central tells us — area cinema owners are evaluating their business models and trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t for an arthouse.

Northwest Film Forum executive director Lyall Bush echoed Spitzer’s statements. For NWFF, he said, the business is about more than just sharing the experience of film, it’s about cultivating a creative space for the community.

“Aside from the 200 films that we screen every year that we hold quarterly filmmaking classes,” he said. “We give away money to filmmakers. We’re a real 360 film arts center.”

Last month, CHS reported that NWFF had launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund an installation of digital projection equipment. Central Cinema is now in the midst of its own drive.

“The entire world, starting two-three years ago, started to turn towards… digital cinema,” Bush says. “We kind of resisted it until we realized that in order to stay in the biz we had to convert.”

The campaign reached its goal, raising $51,685 dollars. Bush said this is proof that passion for local cinema is still alive.

“Independent cinema just in this region is strong,” he said. “The audience for it is strong.”

Why then, is Landmark leaving the Egyptian?

The Egyptian Theatre is the third Landmark venue to close in as many years — The University District’s Neptune Theatre has been re-opened as a music performance space, and the Metro is now operating under Sundance Cinemas.

Spitzer said he’s often been disappointed with the level of upkeep at Landmark venues, a few of which have not received major renovations in several years.

“I think Landmark is not trying as hard as they did for a lot of their places,” Spitzer said.

Though he insists he doesn’t have any inside scoop on the historic theater’s closure, Spitzer said he’s felt as a patron of cinema that the chain’s film selection has been rote in recent memory.

“(Their film selection is) not indicative of any excitement for anything coming out,” he said. “Not ‘we managed to score this one’ or ‘we saw this one at the festival, you have to come see it because it’s awesome’ — you haven’t been getting the sense of those things.”

Central Cinema’s fans get social (Image: Central Cinema)

Spitzer said the process behind choosing what films to show is an important opportunity for a theater to assert itself as a member of the community.

“You can’t just sit at a little room with a desk and think about it by yourself, you have to think about different things, feeling out other events at other places, getting a sense of the pulse,” he said. “(You have) to stay current, to have a feel for what people find interesting.”

With Netflix and HDTVs making home viewing increasingly accessible, Bush said that NWFF is grappling with the strategy involved with bringing a new generation into the theater.

“It seems that for us to bring out audiences in their 20s is a slightly different invitation… they want to see activity associated with the experience,” he said.

Whether that involves DJ nights, happy hours, or something NWFF hasn’t thought up yet, Bush said the goal is to host events that are “a little bit more socially based.”

“The question is: if a lot of people, including me, watch so much cinema on Netflix, what is the value of a theatre?” Bush said. “It’s the popcorn and that smell but also the sense of belonging to the larger world.”

“The purpose of having that image so large is that it is there for hundreds of people,” he added. “The human animal still wants that experience.”

The Samarya Center, Seattle’s only nonprofit yoga center, is offering free yoga classes on Saturdays at Pratt Park, from 11 a.m. to noon.

The classes started June 22 and will run through September 21. They’re also teaching the class at Cal Anderson Park on Sundays, through September 22.

Photo courtesy of the Samarya Center.

“We are offering these classes as part of our mission and charter – to offer the opportunity for healing, health and wellness for all people,” says Molly Lannon Kenny, the center’s founder.

The classes are flow classes for all levels. Participants should bring a mat and any props, though Kenny says a towel or flat twin sheet will work too.

Yoga teachers will be handing out free passes for classes at the center to be used any time during the summer, excluding the Thursday night Ashtanga class. The passes must be used before September 22.

(Image: Tim Durkan via Twitter)

A garbage truck lost part of its load Thursday afternoon leaving trash bags littering 23rd Ave at E Union. Here’s what @timdurkan saw:

Trash Crash! A @CleanScapes truck has dumped its entire load at 23rd Ave. and E Union. Cleanup underway.

The clean-up continued past 4:30 PM as passing cars spread some of the trash around the intersection.